Shayna Weiss, Distinguished Visiting Scholar in Israel Studies

Shayna Weiss is the Distinguished Visiting Scholar in Israel Studies at the United States Naval Academy. Hailing from Jacksonville, Florida, she earned a B.A (summa cum laude) in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies and International and Global Studies from Brandeis University in 2007. In 2015, she earned a Ph.D. from New York University in Hebrew and Judaic Studies. She completed postdoctoral fellowships in Israel at Bar Ilan University and Tel Aviv University, where she taught courses about Israeli history and society. She has also taught at Brooklyn College and New York University.

Dr. Weiss' dissertation, "A beach of their own: the origins of gender segregation in the Israeli public sphere" examines controversies about mixed and separate swimming in Israel as a lenses to understand conflicts of religion, gender, and state. She is currently revising her dissertation into a book manuscript. Dr. Weiss is also interested in the politics of Israeli popular culture, particularly in television and film. She is frequently invited to speak in academic and popular settings and is a contributor to various scholarly and popular publications about Israel, Judaism, and the Middle East. Her writings can be viewed here.